Charles' Choice (Penny's Choice)

by Annette Archer

  “I doubt that whoever it was, was really Charles’s girlfriend. He probably never got over that girl,” the woman replied. “I think maybe Penny was seduced by Charles’s brother. What was his name again?”

  “Thomas,” the man said.

  “Oh yes, well, Thomas seduced Penny. She wasn’t far along enough in her training to resist the charm of a vampire. Perhaps Charles went along just to protect her.”

  Charles chuckled again. Thomas, charm? Seduction? That was about the funniest thing he had ever heard. Charles knew that it was Penny who had seduced Thomas.

  “Well, whatever the case, he can’t go about free just because he’s back,” the man said.

  “Agreed,” the woman said. “But I think that perhaps we should go easy on him. If he is back because Penny was killed by his family, we can have our best fighter back if we play our cards right.”

  Charles’s head continued to throb and it was beginning to be hard for him to continue to stay awake and listen to their conversation. He had heard everything that he really needed to know though. Hopefully in another couple hours he would be ready to go. The Brotherhood had a date with his really pissed off big brother. He didn’t want to keep them waiting.

  ****

  Penny lay down on the bed in the creaking, ancient shack. It was the only shelter that the banshees were able to come up with on such a short notice. She needed to lay down after her trip back from India with Morrigan. Several more banshees had appeared after they had left the Master’s dwelling place. In the blink of an eye Penny was back in Ireland. But her stomach felt quesy and her head felt like it was still back in India.

  She had no idea how long she had been asleep when someone knocked on the door of the shack.

  “Come in,” Penny said, sitting up. Her stomach had settled and her head felt mostly in place again. But she was beginning to get a little hungry.

  “Did you rest well?” A beautiful young woman with raven hair said walking into the room.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” penny said, “I was expecting someone else.”

  “Penny, it is I, Morrigan,” the woman said. Penny looked at the woman confused. Morrigan was a hideous and spooky hag. “We can shift between apparition, hag, and beauty.”

  “Oh,” Penny said. She looked at Morrigan again.

  “I brought you some bread and broth,” Morrigan said, pulling a stale loaf of bread from her long cloak. “We don’t have much food. We don’t eat.”

  “That’s okay,” Penny said, grabbing the bread and the skin of broth. “So your shifting thing….”

  “Does this form bother you?”

  “No, no, just which do you prefer?” Penny asked biting into the bread.

  “I actually prefer a raven,” Morrigan said. “If you know Celtic mythology, it is what I am associated with the most.”

  “Oh, well, why are you appearing like this to me now?” Penny asked.

  “To make you feel more comfortable,” Morrigan said. She patted Penny on the hand.

  “Please don’t do things just to make me feel comfortable,” Penny said. She took a couple sips of the thin broth from the skin flask. It was not the most delicious meal she had ever eaten, but it was still food.

  Morrigan got up and walked toward the door. “You are the bravest human that I have ever met.” She smiled at Penny and then turned into her hag self again. “Rest up, dear. Tonight we go over our battle plans.” Morrigan became more covered in black feathers until she looked like a raven and then she flew away into the sky.

  (CHAPTER 11) The Attack

  Charles looked at his watch, and then placed the earplugs in. When Lorelei and her people started their singing, he didn’t want to be caught in the trance. He had also smuggled earplugs to Herschel last night. When Lorelei and her kind sang, Charles’s first job was to spring Herschel from his cell.

  Charles had spent the last day poking holes in the Brotherhood defenses. Most of the things he did he had no idea why he was doing them. Some he could make a guess. While he was not left alone, he was able to roam pretty feeling with an escort. Most of the things that Charles had to do, looked pretty innocuous, especially to the green agent assigned to watch him.

  In almost every corridor and room, Charles had put water. He didn’t leave obvious glasses of water lying about on every table. He pretended he was watering the plastic plants. The agent thought that Charles was just a little loopy.

  He cut small holes in the stained glass. That job was a little harder. He did it at night while the agents slept. It wasn’t hard to evade people in the mystery house. There were so many trap doors, holes, and quirky turns that it was easy to disappear. But, he had no idea why he was cutting the holes.

  He could guess why he was supposed to leave a silver trail on the wall. Werewolves were ultra-sensitive to silver. If they had a trail to follow they could lead the rest of the warriors into the heart of the sanctuary.

  Charles also sabotaged several alarms and the elevator. He opened every curtain wherever he went. He made sure to leave doors just cracked open and carved strange symbols into the shrubberies outside and arranged house plants in a certain way. He had also installed a couple computer worms that the goblins had given Thomas. Charles looked at his watch again. Sixty-three seconds until Thomas initiated the attack.

  Charles looked over to the young agent assigned to him. He already had so much hate built up in him for the supernatural races. He had no idea that most of them had never done anything to harm humans and many of them even had helped humans.

  Thirty seconds left. Charles made sure that his earplugs were snug. He then proceeded toward Herschel’s holding cell. He walked through a wall and then looked at his watch again.

  “Expecting someone?’ The agent pointed to Charles’s watch.

  “Yeah, my mermaid girlfriend is supposed to be calling in a seconds,” Charles said with a broad, wicked smile on his face. Five seconds.

  The agents started to speak, but then stopped mid-sentence. Lorelei and the Nixen had struck the Sanctuary.

  Charles reached over and snapped the neck of his guard. He quickly moved into the next corridor where the Brotherhood kept their prisoners, which were generally few. They preferred to kill instead of capturing. Charles knew that they would kill Herschel after another day when they felt they had gotten all relevant information.

  Herschel sat in the cell patiently. Charles took the keys off a sleeping guard and tossed them to the vampire. He decided that he would leave the two guards in the holding room for Herschel’s lunch.

  Herschel burst through bars and tore into the throats of the two guards. Charles smiled. Normally vampires eating made him a little woozy. But this time, he felt a thrill and a sense of release. Perhaps they actually had a chance at winning this war. Maybe he could actually have a little peace. Maybe he could have a family with Lorelei. Maybe he could stay in one place for longer than a week. Maybe his life could be normal again. At least as normal as life could be with Poseidon as a father-in-law and vampires for siblings.

  Herschel and Charles bolted back into the hallway. They were joined by another crew of vampires being led by the werewolves. The head vampire, a young looking woman, threw them a pair of special ear buds.

  “Charles,” Thomas’s voice came through the head phones. “Good to see that everything is going well at that you are alive. Have you had eyes on Penny’s grandmother?”

  The female vampire handed him a walkie-talkie. “Yeah,” Charles said into the radio, “but she is heavily guarded in the Grand Ballroom.”

  “I’ll handle Penny’s grandmother. You’ve got the lead,” Thomas said and the vampires and werewolves all looked to Charles for their next move.

  “Alright, we have about two minutes left in the Nixen trance. Take out as many as you can before then,” Charles said into radio and then all of the creatures dispersed, leaving a bloody trail in their wake.

  Charles grabbed a gun and a short sword off of a dead agent and went after a sp
ecific agent. His old friend George. While George may have seen like a quirky old man, really he was a cold blooded killer. Penny had shared a wall with him when she was in the Brotherhood. The curtain to Georges shower was in Penny’s room, which was just one of the quirky features of the Winchester Mystery House that protected it against supernatural creatures.

  Charles knew that he couldn’t get to George before the siren song expired, but he could get there before George was able to fully be ready for him. George’s skills rivaled Charles, but Charles hoped that years of dealing with vampires, werewolves and the like had made him weak to humans. Wooden weapons weren’t quite as effective as against humans. But a bullet was still a bullet. Plus George was getting older. Charles was still a young man in his twenties, but George had just celebrated his seventieth birthday. Although perhaps the extra years just gave George more time to perfect his skills. Charles would find out in just a few seconds. He rounded the corner to George’s room just as the trance wore off. He heard the clash of Brotherhood agents against his clan.

  “Trance has worn off,” Thomas said crackling through the ear piece. “Second round coming through.”

  Charles felt the djinn wreaking havoc as the whole house shook. Then the whole sanctuary went black. The goblin worms had been successful and any technology on the Brotherhoods part was useless. Charles stopped outside of the room with George.

  ****

  Penny sat on the edge of the Irish coast with Morrigan waiting for their signal.

  “Are you ready dear?” Morrigan asked, putting her long, crooked fingers on Penny’s shoulder. The rest of the banshees, most of whom were hag or ghost like creatures except for the few that preferred the look of insanely beautiful women, were all ready for battle. Mostly the banshees were going to be teleporting in and out caring for the wounded. Their secondary goal was to spread confusion and panic. There was nothing like screaming banshees and the rancid smell of rotting flesh to knock you off you’re A game.

  Banshees could teleport anywhere as long as there was a clear path as wide as the head of a nail. With all of the winding passages and false walls in the Winchester, no clear path existed. Thomas gave instruction to Charles to put small, inconspicuous holes in the sanctuary’s many ornate stained glass windows. If Charles positioned them correctly, there should be a path for the banshees to enter.

  “Alright,” Penny said as the order came in from Thomas. “It’s time to go.” Penny had been briefed that the teleport would not be the most comfortable experience for her. At least it wouldn’t last longer than a couple of seconds. “Thomas says to go straight for the Grand Ballroom.”

  “We’re going to drop you off on the outskirts of the Brotherhood’s sanctuary first,” Morrigan said as she held onto Penny’s hand. “You will be responsible for setting up a triage for the wounded.”

  Penny wanted to argue, but she knew that Thomas had probably given specific instructions to the banshees. Thomas was impossible to argue with and she was pretty sure that it was just as difficult to argue a 5,000 year old banshee.

  Penny held her breathe as the collective power of the banshees teleported her from the Irish coast to the street outside of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. Penny gasped for breath. She felt like there was ice water running through veins. And then suddenly it was warm again and she was standing on a street next to Lorelei.

  Penny looked over at the Siren. She looked tired, but happy.

  “How is it going?” Penny asked.

  “Not too bad right now,” Lorelei said. “We’ve got some wounded coming in, but the Brotherhood was able to get a call out for reinforcements before we turned off their technology.”

  Penny knew that was part of the plan. They wanted as many of the Brotherhood there for the massacre as possible. They were holding back the Rakshashai until all of the agents were there. The Nixen were scheduled for another round after the Brotherhood reinforcements arrived. That would give the creature allies a chance to wipe out even more. Even if they were unsuccessful at wiping out the whole Brotherhood, they wanted the rest of the world to see what would happen if you would band together.

  “Okay, I’m ready,” Penny said. She felt a little woozy and leaned back on the gate.

  “Why don’t you take a brief break,” Lorelei said, sitting Penny down in some bushes. “Let you collect your wits after traveling from Europe to California in ten seconds.”

  Penny sat on the ground and breathed heavily while a banshee helped a wounded werewolf into the triage area. Penny felt good knowing Thomas was rescuing her grandmother. No one was a better fighter than Thomas. Not even Charles.

  ***

  Thomas stood on the roof of the Brotherhood sanctuary. His plan was being executed with precision. Perhaps now his family would be safe.

  Thomas didn’t trust the removal of Penny’s grandmother to anyone but himself. With everyone handling their own orders, Thomas set about to get into the Grand Ballroom, which was the most enchanted and heavily guarded room the entire sanctuary.

  Thomas was not the best fighter. He was able to hold his own against a lot, but as far as vampires go, Thomas thought that he was the runt of the litter. What he lacked in brute strength or speed, he made up for with his intelligence though. And he had a dozy of a plan worked out for getting Penny’s grandmother out of the ballroom.

  Thomas had anticipated that the Brotherhood would keep Penny’s grandmother in the Grand Ballroom. His whole plan for getting her out unscathed hinged on that. Of course the Brotherhood obliged Thomas’s plans.

  Way to go to be unpredictable, guys, Thomas thought. His sarcasm only continued to wind up before fights. It was his best defense.

  Thomas hoped that Charles was able to clear a path like he had asked to the Grand Ballroom. He had given Charles a series of odd tasks. Some were to allow different races access and some were to clear a path to Penny’s grandmother.

  Thomas jumped in through the stained glass window. Charles had removed the first obstacle. He could smell the fight, which meant the second obstacle, a hindrance to vampire senses, had been removed. He also caught the scent of banshees. He wanted to stop breathing, but he needed his sense of smell for his rescue mission. Thomas never was able to get over how he felt about blood now. Even though it made him hungry, it still made him a little woozy. He felt dirty for liking it so much.

  The house shook violently. The djinn was causing an earthquake. Thomas cursed the foul djinn as a couple windows collapsed and carefully lain plans shattered to the ground. Thomas would have to fight his way to Penny’s grandmother now.

  Thomas gritted and bared his teeth. He ran full force through a wall and grabbed two of the humans on the other side and slammed them back through the wall. Without waiting for even a second, Thomas tore on to the other humans in the room. In about ten seconds, fifteen humans lay dead. Thomas climbed up the stairs in the middle of the room leading up to the ceiling. At least he could still smell and hear. He could smell blood that was similar to Penny’s. He assumed that it was her grandmother and she wasn’t far away.

  Thomas threw open the door leading into the Grand Ballroom, reached up and sucked the guard underneath. He drained the blood from the guard and tossed him aside. Thomas knew the Brotherhood’s protocol: They would rain down wooden arrows. He calculated that he had .53 seconds to get out of the way before the crossbow arrows would pierce his skin. He threw himself to the ceiling and hung on as arrows sliced through the opening and into the agent that he had already killed. Thomas counted to three and then punched through the floor, grabbing the feet of another agent, and pulling him on to the floor below. Thomas emerged on to the ballroom floor and grabbed another agent, using him as a shield against the oncoming onslaught of expected fire bullet.

  He ran from agent to agent collecting and tossing aside new human shields. When the bullet and arrows were spent, Thomas lunged at the last of the agents standing. His eyes were on fire and his lungs burnt with anger. He tore into t
he last of the agents when he looked over at Penny’s grandmother. She had a look of horror on her face. The look that Thomas saw whenever someone saw him feeding or killing. It was a look he hated and a look that he would never forget.

  ****

  Charles slashed open the door. George stood in the middle of the room, getting his weapons ready. Charles didn’t wait for him to finish. With a quick slash, Charles removed the weapon belt from George’s waist. All that the old man had left was a large steel sword.

  George acted quickly and disarmed Charles of his gun. Now Charles only had short sword left. Charles looked on the ground. George’s second sword was on the floor not more than a foot away from Charles. He ducked as George swung at him and grabbed the sword at his feet. He stood up and parried the master agent’s next strike.

  “What are you doing, Charles?” George said, choosing his next blow.

  “You killed my father,” Charles said. He took his blow, but the old man dodged it.

  “Your father was vampire scum. The Brotherhood dealt with it.”

  “No, George, that kill had your name written all over it. You personally killed my father.” Charles leaped at the old man again with both of his swords. He managed to get a cut in on George’s upper arm.

  “Okay, you’re right. I did kill your father. But what about your brother? He killed Penny!” Charles dodged George’s attack, but tripped backward over the rug and smashed in to the wall. George grabbed a knife from the floor and through it at Charles. He leaned to the left. It missed his skin, but stuck his shirt to the wall.

  Charles laughed. “Ha, no, Thomas would never hurt Penny. That was all of trick. Right now, you have a house full of vampires, werewolves, and all other manor of nasty supernatural creatures that have a score to settle with you.”

  Charles knew that he was cornered. If he didn’t think fast enough, George might have the upper hand. Just then another command came through the head phones.

  “All Brotherhood agents are in the sanctuary. Send in the third wave.”